Advice for Macbook air 11" 2012

[s1t0]

I think I will buy the 11" inch MBA and I think I will go for the core i7 and expand the ram to 8GB are these things worth it ? I will pay 150 and 100 extra for those things will they be necessary ? Im doing this because I love portability of the MBA and sometimes I want to play good games and do some simple things in illustrator and dreamweaver. Will I be satisfied ? PLEASE. Someone help me thanks ;)

[chucker]

I'd say no on the better CPU and definitely yes on the better RAM.

[alcimedes]

RAM is a no brainer. Can't add more, and it's $100 to go from 4GB to 8GB. Wouldn't bother with the CPU upgrade either.

[psmith2.0]

What, exactly, do you get going from the i5 to the i7?

I see that the clock speed is a bigger leap than I'd assumed (1.7GHz to 2.0GHz). But I figure the real changes lie in the two different types. What's the i7 sporting/offering? :confused:

And yes...for a machine that offers no back-end RAM upgrade, as much as it hurts to pay Apple's prices, it kinda makes sense to in this scenario, IMO. You may appreciate it more in 18-24 than right now, but in 18-24 months you won't be able to do anything about it if you don't upgrade upfront.

Think back to just two years ago, how 4GB seemed "big". In two years from now, as the OS and apps advance, 4GB might feel like 2GB does today. And you'll be stuck with it. :(

This is the only reason why, if I were getting a 13" notebook, my gut would push me toward the Pro...knowing that I could buy the cheapest, most modestly-configured model today, and easily upgrade both the RAM and hard drive down the road, if needed.

As much as I love the Air, you are indeed forced to make some big decisions - and spend a bit extra on the front end - that you don't have to with other Macs.

[chucker]

What, exactly, do you get going from the i5 to the i7?

I see that the clock speed is a bigger leap than I'd assumed (1.7GHz to 2.0GHz). But I figure the real changes lie in the two different types. What's the i7 sporting/offering? :confused:

It has more cache (4 MB vs. 3). Other than that, it adds vPro and Trusted Execution*, neither of which, to my knowledge, are implemented on OS X.

So, really, not a whole lot. Unless you do a lot of Boot Camp-based Windows stuff. In which case, really, just get a Lenovo.

*) Intel's marketing pages on those two: i7-3667U (http://ark.intel.com/products/64898/Intel-Core-i7-3667U-Processor-(4M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz)) and i5-3317U (http://ark.intel.com/products/65707/Intel-Core-i5-3317U-Processor-(3M-Cache-up-to-2_60-GHz)). The 'u' is for 'ultra low voltage', which is what MacBook Airs use for the small size to be feasible; the first '3' is for the third-generation Core i series, a.k.a. Ivy Bridge. The i3/i5/i7 is really just highly confusing and, at this point, means little more than low-end/mid-range/high-end.

[psmith2.0]

Ah, I see. So, on balance, there's really not much reason for stepping up to an i7 on a Mac? I ask because, hopefully, soon I'll be dealing with this same thing myself...

[chucker]

Yup. Generally speaking, I wouldn't invest in higher-end CPU (or GPU) BTO options. Invest in I/O instead:


On models where the RAM isn't upgradeable, pick as much as possible.
On models where the RAM is upgradeable, pick as little as possible, then optionally get some from a third party. A year or two down the road, upgrade it.
If you're immediately picking an SSD, consider upping its capacity a year or two down the road. Or, upgrade from an HDD to an SSD at that point.

[torifile]

Always always always increase the RAM in whatever computer you're getting. With the MBA, the only way to do that is to buy it from Apple. So, yeah, get it.

[Robo]

I agree with everyone else — bump the RAM, don't worry about the CPU. Put that extra $150 toward AppleCare, or a nice case, or outfitting it with some essential software (like DragonDrop).

$150 is an eighth of the cost of the 11" (128 GB + 8 GB) MBA. So if you're buying one and want it to last four years, that's $150 for each six months. Will the processor upgrade keep it current for six months longer, after those four years are up? Not really. The bump to 2 GHz sounds like a lot, but it really isn't that much faster, and there's so much more to a computer than the CPU anyway — four years from now the MBA will have a retina display and more RAM and bigger SSDs and better graphics and probably some new port and some other stuff you'll really want. You're going to want to upgrade just as soon, no matter which CPU you get.

Definitely bump the RAM, though. That does help a computer feel current longer. I guess what we're all saying is, CPU speed is rarely the bottleneck people think it is. Stuff like RAM and drive access speeds and graphics are more important. If you have a lot of money and just want the best, go ahead and upgrade the CPU, sure. But it's not nearly as important as RAM or AppleCare in the real world.